A Washington, D.C. council member says officials plan to push through an overhaul of the district’s criminal code despite a veto issued Wednesday by Mayor Muriel Bowser
It would also grant the right to a jury trial to people charged with misdemeanors and facing jail time. Another provision would reduce the maximum criminal penalties forProponents say the changes would modernize and streamline an outdated code dating to 1901. It incorporates the recommendations of an independent commission that spent 15 years reviewing the code, the proponents say. Under the district’s home rule charter, Congress reviews all local legislation before it becomes law.
Ms. Bowser, a Democrat who this week started her third term as mayor, said she supports updating the code but lodged several objections to the council-passed bill. The overhaul wouldn’t take effect for several years, but Ms. Bowser said she and others, including Police Chief Robert Contee, think that timeline is “absolutely insufficient for a system-wide reform of this magnitude.”Mr. Allen described the District of Columbia criminal code as one of the worst in the U.S. “A veto sends a message to keep the status quo—one that has clearly shown it doesn’t keep us safe—and it is not the right decision for the moment we face,” he said in a statement.
Among the bill’s components the mayor objected to is a proposed reduction in the maximum sentences for robbery, carjacking and home-invasion burglary. “The higher penalties are not handed down for many offenders,” she wrote in the letter explaining her veto, “but they are currently available to judges for repeat violent offenders committing the most heinous versions of these crimes.”for the second straight year, although the 2022 tally reflected a 10% drop from 2021.
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